Bill Easton

Bill Easton, Sandborn ’22, track, cross country – 8th Hall of Fame for the Stinesville native who competed in track and cross country at IU and began his coaching career at Ellettsville … lettered as distance runner at IU under coach Billy Hayes and used Hayes coaching techniques to build consistent national track and cross country powers at Drake (1941-47, including 3 straight NCAA cross country champions, 1944, ’45, ’46) and Kansas, where his Jayhawks won the 1953 NCAA cross country championship and 1959 and ’60 outdoor track championships, and 8 straight times won the Big 8 “track triple” (league champions in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track) – 39 Big 8 team titles overall … Kansas teams included Olympic gold medalists Al Oerter (discus, a record 4 times), Bill Nieder (shot put), Billy Mills (10,000 meters, only time U.S. athlete won event) … in all, coached 32 all-Americans, 8 Olympians … Kansas athletes set 4 world records, 14 American records, 4 Olympic records, 7 NCAA records … retired in 1965, coached Mexican Olympic track team in 1968 Games at Mexico City … coached basketball and track at Ellettsville High in 1926-27 … coached Hammond to only two IHSAA State track titles (1938, ’39) … in U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame and now 7 others, including University of Kansas Hall of Fame … died Oct. 4, 1997, at 93.